Cove offers 24/7 Live Alarm Monitoring with a backup battery and AT&T LTE cellular connection, so you stay safe even when the power goes out. Additionally, the installation process was effortless thanks to the touch-screen base station. Keep reading to learn more about the Cove home security system, and to learn how it compares to other home security solutions. Cove isn’t for the smart home tech fanatics, or for people who want a professional to come in and install their security equipment. Cove also doesn’t have a self-monitoring plan, so if you want to monitor your system yourself, you’ll need to go with a different system. To start, this top tier plan offers everything that Cove Basic includes, such as 24/7 Live Alarm Monitoring for keeping an eye on intruders, Environmental Monitoring for fires and leaks, and Cove InstaText and LiveAssist for instant notifications and access to help. However, the Cove Plus plan also adds on a lifetime equipment warranty, smartphone control, smart home voice control (Alexa and Google Home), and a lifetime monitoring rate-lock guarantee. Cove Plus will cost you an extra $10/mo., but we believe that the investment is well worth it to create a home environment that is safe and easily to interact with when needed. Let’s review each plan to see which is best for your home. Both plans also include TripleTouch Communications, Cove InstaText, and Cove LiveAssist, which help to ensure that you are notified when there is an issue and you can reach out if you need assistance. Other integrated features such as Smash and Grab Protection, a 100% AT&T 4G LTE connection, hourly automated system checks, and a 24-hour battery backup, all work around the clock to ensure your system is functioning properly. If you want to take a step up to Cove Plus, you’ll get all the above features, as well as smartphone control, smart home voice control via Alexa and Google Home, a $5/month equipment reward, and a lifetime monitoring rate-lock guarantee. If you just want the basics, then Cove Basic will likely work well for you. But, if you want to be able to check in on your home and easily command it via voice control, you’ll likely find the Cove Plus upgrade well worth the money. Unlike some home security providers that advertise starter equipment bundles, Cove’s website has you take a quiz to determine exactly what security equipment is recommended for your dwelling. Of course, if you already know what you want, you can skip the quiz and begin adding items to your cart for purchase. Failing to install enough equipment could result in areas of your home not being protected, or an intrusion going undetected. Let’s start with the essentials that you’ll need. You’ll want to place a door sensor on every entry-way into your home—that will cost $6.00 per door with Cove. Next, you’ll want to consider placing window sensors, also $6.00 per unit, on any ground floor windows. However, if you have a room with lots of windows (because who doesn’t love fresh sunlight), you can instead install a motion detector that will oversee a larger amount of space. With Cove, these motion detectors cost $12 each. We love that the Cove Smoke Detector also has the ability to sense carbon monoxide, making it a good solution to keep an eye on your home. Overall, the equipment we tested from Cove did seem to be well-constructed and we didn’t have any concerns about quality. Cellular connections: Cove security equipment is connected to the internet via both home WiFi and AT&T 4G LTE, so if you ever lose your WiFi connection, your equipment can continue communicating with Cove HQ. Backup battery: The main base station, the Cove Touch Screen Panel, can continue working for up to 24-hours without AC power. So, if your area is prone to power outages, you won’t need to worry. SmashSafe: Lastly, Cove offers a feature known as SmashSafe. Essentially, if an intruder decides to destroy your Cove base station, your system will still send out an alarm to the monitoring center. Cove offers quite a few features that help to keep your home safe, even if it’s without power or internet access. Your home may be off the grid, but Cove isn’t. While Cove doesn’t offer as many camera options as some companies, the company provides the basics you need for monitoring your home, inside and out. The Cove Indoor Camera is a motion-activated offering with a 1080p HD video resolution and a two-way communication feature if you want to talk through it to scare off intruders or communicate with those in your home. The Cove Outdoor Camera is similar to the indoor model, but features IP-65 weather resistance to survive the outdoors, a 140-degree wide-angle lens for a better view of your property, and infrared capability for seeing in the dark. The Kami Doorbell Camera can be powered via battery, USB, or your current doorbell wiring. The Skybell Doorbell Camera, on the other hand, can only be powered by your existing doorbell wiring—no battery or USB options. So, you may be asking yourself, why would I want the Skybell option if the Kami can do more? Honestly, that’s a good question. You can buy an adapter for the Skybell, allowing it to work with more modern digital doorbell systems, but beyond that—we have no idea. But, what about smarter home integration? Such as the ability to control the lights or set up complex routines? Welp, Cove doesn’t offer any of that sadly. The system doesn’t sport Z-Wave or Zigbee integration, and it doesn’t work with systems like IFTTT. In short, Cove is great when it comes to protecting your home, but it isn’t so smart. Oh, by the way, did we mention that for voice assistant control you’ll need to subscribe to Cove Plus? Sometimes it costs more money to yell at your voice assistant. Once you upgrade to Cove Plus, you’ll be able to monitor and control your system from afar. Good for checking in on the kids and pets via cameras, or ensuring that an alarm is sincere and not false. Do note that currently, on both the Apple App Store for iOS and Google Play Store for Android, the Cove app scores 1.9 out of 5 stars—certainly not impressive. Even in our testing, we found the app to be extremely basic. Come on, Cove, update that app and wow us with some 21st-century features. Once the Cove base station was installed, it walked us through the entire setup process doing all the hard work. We were especially impressed that we didn’t need to log into the Cove mobile app or read the physical instructions to get setup. As such, Cove is an excellent option for those who want a simple DIY experience and want to leave the drill in the closet. However, if you find that you need a bit of help, you can contact Cove through the mobile app, via email, or the website. There is also a Call button on the Cove base station if you need to quickly reach Cove HQ. Within a minute of a false alarm being set-off, we received both text and email messages from Cove. We were then able to call the monitoring center with ease and cancel the alarm so that first-responders were not dispatched. We’ve compiled a list of a few other DIY home security solutions that you might want to consider—this way, you can compare what works best for you. While Cove excels in pricing, equipment, and installation, we would like to see greater compatibility with smart homes. After all, having smart lights to control is no longer something only sought after by the most tech crazy. We check to ensure that the company offers a wide range of competent security hardware to protect your home, and feature-rich monitoring plans with a solid value. Next, we take a closer look at the installation process and how well the system integrates into your home with features such as home automation. The easier it is to use and integrate the system, the higher marks are scored. Lastly, we collect data from past customers, as well as our own experience, to rate the security company’s overall customer experience. Good security isn’t worth much without a strong support team backing it up. Cove provides well-built hardware, along with a well-priced monitoring plan, allowing you to protect your home without breaking the bank. Additionally, Cove was easy to install and we appreciated the guided step-by-step instructions that were given on the base station out-of-the-box. While the two services are quite similar, Cove does offer a base station with a nicer touch-screen interface, compared to SimpliSafe’s more traditional keypad. The one aspect of SimpliSafe that we did enjoy, that Cove did not offer, was the ability to integrate with August smart locks for your front door. For more information, we recommend checking out our comparison piece, taking a closer look at SimpliSafe vs. Cove home security.
